Headlines

China Vanke, the latest developer to teeter in the country’s long-running real estate crisis, said bondholders had agreed to a plan that gave the company a 30-day grace period to negotiate repayment of a $285 million bond issue, the New York Times reported. Approval from bondholders after a vote on Monday provided Vanke with a temporary lifeline, preventing the company from immediately tipping into default for failing to repay bonds that matured on Dec. 15. However, the bondholders again rejected Vanke’s proposal to delay repayment by one year.

Klöckner Pentaplast announced yesterday that the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas has confirmed its reorganization plan, PlasticsToday.com reported. The plan, according to the company, was developed and financed with the support of an ad hoc group of its first-lien lenders and noteholders. Upon completion of the restructuring, Klöckner Pentaplast said it will reduce approximately €1.3B ($1.5B) of funded debt.

Brazilian airline Azul SA is the latest in a string of overseas carriers turning to chapter 11 in the US, becoming “bankruptcy tourists” to access legal protections largely out of reach in their home countries, according to a Bloomberg Law commentary. Azul’s bankruptcy plan, approved this month, slashes more than $2 billion in debt and allows it to reject aircraft leases it couldn’t easily shed at home. Other foreign carriers seeking chapter 11 in the US over the past five years include Avianca, LATAM, Grupo Aeroméxico, and, more recently, Brazil’s Gol Linhas Aéreas.

Suspicious accounts continued to operate on Binance even after the world’s largest exchange agreed to stricter AML controls as part of a 2023 settlement with the U.S., according to a report in the Financial Times. In November 2023, Binance settled with FinCEN and OFAC for sanctions violations and violations of the Bank Secrecy Act, agreeing to pay a total penalty of $4.368 billion.

South Korean e-commerce company Coupang has been sued in a U.S. court in an investor class action ​alleging violations of securities laws after a cybersecurity breach exposed ‌personal information of more than 33 million customers, Reuters reported. The lawsuit, filed last week in federal court in ‌California, claims Coupang, its CEO and Chairman Bom Kim and its Chief Financial Officer Gaurav Anand misled investors about the company’s data security practices and failed to disclose the breach in a timely way.

Japan is looking to the country's $7 trillion household savings hoard to support bond demand with plans to launch new products and incentives, building on hot recent retail sales and filling a void left by diminished central bank buying, Reuters reported. Efforts to attract Japanese households are not new -- in 2010, the finance ministry created a mascot Kokusai-sensei, or Professor JGB, to pitch the securities and later even offered gold coins to buyers of special reconstruction bonds. But where mascots and shiny metals struggled, higher yields have succeeded in drawing in buyers this year.

The Canadian economy slowed in October amid a pullback in the manufacturing sector, as economists expect “subdued” economic growth heading into 2026 before a gradual recovery, the Canadian Press reported. Statistics Canada reported Tuesday that real gross domestic product was 0.3 per cent lower in October. Goods-producing industries fell 0.7 per cent, with manufacturing driving the decline. Manufacturing output was down 1.5 per cent in the month, StatCan reported.

British Columbia’s Supreme Court October ruling could leave private property in 95% of British Columbia vulnerable to claims from indigenous groups that have been seeking to reclaim ownership of land taken from them scores of years ago, said government officials and property lawyers, the Wall Street Journal reported. The ruling has roiled the wealthy districts of the greater Vancouver area, one of the most expensive real-estate markets in the world.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) praised El Salvador's stronger-than-expected economic growth in a statement on Monday, CoinDesk.com reported. The update notably did not include previous IMF suggestions that El Salvador would be putting on hold its strategy of accumulating bitcoin (BTC), something that country — under the leadership of President Nayib Bukele — has continued to do since negotiating an IMF loan package several months ago.

Russia’s central bank laid out a proposed framework that would legalize and regulate cryptocurrency trading for both individuals and institutions, continuing its softening stance toward cryptocurrencies. However, it continues to caution that investing in crypto carries risks, including potential losses, CoinDesk.com reported. “They are not issued or guaranteed by any jurisdiction and are subject to increased volatility and sanctions risks,” the central bank’s press release said.